Yesterday, today, tomorrow

Yesterday I found saying to myself that eventhough my Singapore official tour was nearing I was feeling not even close to excitement. Ofcourse I had jumped with joy on finally getting my visa and buying my tickets which was just last week but was somehow looking like ages ago. The fact that I couldn't find anything nice in Westside when I went shopping in the evening further dampened my spirits.

Today is a new story all together. My Boss had told me a couple of days back that since he was not going for the conference he had suggested to the organizers to let me speak on his behalf. But I wasn't sure they would agree since Sir's was an invited talk and not a regular oral presentation. So it came as a pleasant surprise when Sir told me in the morning that the organizers had actually consented. Further, the icing on the cake was they were letting me talk for the entire 30 min originally alloted to Sir for his invited lecture.

I realized that this indeed is going to be a great oppourtunity for me and a great responsibility as I'll be filling in for my Boss. I am finally beginning to feel goosebumps. To add to the mounting pressure this will be my first international oral presentation!!

Watching and listening to the various speakers during WATOC made me wonder when will I get a chance to be on stage. I could not have then imagined for it to happen so soon. I am really glad and grateful that my Boss not only thought but also took the initiative of suggesting my name.

As a result I am now worrying about tomorrow. Or rather about 11.45am, 5 November, 2008 the time at which my presentation is scheduled.

Everyone, please cross your fingers for me so that all goes well that day. :)

My sketching effort

As I had said in my previous post I devoted the weekend in trying a hand at sketching. I chose a photo of the Sydney Harbour Bridge which I had myself taken.

The final result came out in the following sequence:

1. Starting point: the photo from where it began














2. An initial sketch












3. I'm mid way through
















4. The end product
















What are your comments? Did I somewhat succeed?

How to cheer up yourself?

A couple of days back I was feeling really bugged and irritated. In a somewhat off mood I reached home. I even placed "Need cheering up!" as a custom message on gtalk. But by the time some of my friends IMed me back to find out what was wrong at my end, I had already begun to feel happy. How come? Read on to know the different ways to give yourself a kick.

1. Watch any rerun of the Friends series. *It got me laughing out loudly.*

2. Plan a vacation for pure pleasure and leisure. *I am already thinking about having one to London having realised that conference related trips are always hectic.*

3. Pursue an old forgotten hobby of yours for a day. *I have decided that tomorrow being Saturday I'll do some amateur sketching.*

4. Shop but not necessarily till you drop. Try out t-shirts, skirts, kurtas,etc that are typically not your style. You might end up discovering liking the change. Plus remember there's no charge on entering the trial room. At the same time do splurge a bit. *What this means is that I might be paying a visit to Westside on Sunday. :-)*

5. Dance. Put on some dhinchak music and just let yourself go. *This whole week Daddy is going to be in Bangalore so now you know how I am going to keep myself entertained.*

6. Some people say exercise. Exercising produces endorphins and endorphins make you feel happy. *Since the roads and footpaths have been set right starting from NCL to my place, a distance of about 3.5 kms, thanks to the Commonwealth Youth Games being held in Pune, I have started going home by walking. Lets see how long can I keep up with it.*

7. Read books that you used to gorge on in school. *Even now sometimes I get hold of my old Enid Blyton's like St. Clares and Five Find Outers and reading them always make me smile.*

8. Get a new hair cut and also get everybody's attention the next day. *I already did this before leaving for Sydney. So can't repeat the act so soon again. :p*

9. Party and get to know new people. This is what a friend suggested to me. *I think I'll follow this advice during my Singapore trip. ;-)*

and finally

10. Simply talk to/chat with some mad cap friends of yours. *This one always works for me. Hehehe*

So go ahead and list out your favourite things, like in this famous song from The Sound of Music, which will keep you away from feeling sad.

Movie: The Sound of Music
Music: Richard Rodgers
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II
Singer: Julie Andrews

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad

Aadat ho chuki hai

I've always wondered why is it so difficult for people to give up their addictions for smoking. What initially starts of as a way to give thrill or to just look cool later becomes a habit or aadat. Besides such addictions some of us have irritating habits such as biting nails, picking nose (ew! gross!), moving legs constantly due to restlessness, etc.

It turns out that over the last few years I myself had developed one habit, which I am not going to reveal. What I'll willingly disclose is that its suddenly happened to disappear. I was so used to this thing that I am not feeling myself anymore. I should actually be happy to have done away with something that was occupying a lot of my time. But now that its gone I don't know what to do in these newly found free hours.

I am unable to decide whether I should fill this emptiness with something new or just let it be.

Looking for love marriage?

Someone mailed me this photo hoping it will be a help to me. But I, being the magnanimous girl that I am, felt that I must let the world benefit from this ad.

Sydney travelogue (4): The dream ends

As I was getting ready on the morning of 20th September I couldn't believe that already a week had gone by and it was going to be my last real day in Sydney. The countdown for the return had arrived much faster than I had wanted. Putting these thoughts behind lest they spoil my mood, I set out to enjoy our Bondi Beach excursion.

Rahul and I took a train for Bondi Junction from the Town Hall station. It was a short 4-stop 15 minutes ride. Just outside the Bondi Junction we caught a bus to the Bondi Beach. What I saw in front of me on getting down the bus was a large stretch of sand, beautiful clear water and hundreds of people. There were kids with parents, groups of young boys and girls, some loners and many couples, all having fun in their own ways. The experienced were surfing or swimming. The novices were just wading through water. Those in groups were playing ball. Many were just getting sun tanned. I had nice long walks along the beach and got myself soaked "properly" a few times. Tired I decided to sit down just close enough to the water, exactly the way I had on Manly beach. And just as it had happened there, here too big waves came gushing splashing all over me! "Very funny!" was all I could say back to the waves.

The reason I had been able to walk so freely on the beach was because I had given Rahul, who was simply strolling along the adjacent pavement, my bag containing my passport, purse, cell phone and camera to hold. At about 12 noon my stomach started growling telling me it was time to search for Rahul. I walked some 4 times along the whole length of the beach but to my astonishment my labmate was nowhere to find. For the first time during my entire trip I got a big scare. With no identification and no money I was one damsel in distress for a good 45 minutes when I finally was able to find him sitting on a bench. What a relief it was! We gave a fitting end to this (mis)adventure by having a lunch comprising of our now favourite fish and chips and fish burger.

We returned from our trip to relax in our respective hotels by 3 pm. In the evening we met up for coffee and had a short walk on my insistence over the Sydney Central Station. Unfortunately for Rahul my enthusiasm was just not dimming. We then walked to Darling Harbour stopping on the way to browse through the Chinese Market.

At Darling Harbour we were joined by my friend Ishan around 7 pm. He took us to an Indian restaurant called Vrindavan. It felt so good to be able to hear Hindi film songs being played in the background. Our talk but naturally meandered to Shahrukh Khan's abs, Hrithik's looks and my madness for Aamir Khan. While discussing food, Ishan told us about Zaffran, a really classy Indian restaurant on Darling Harbour and expecting us to complain about not taking us there he added "Not that you are not classy." and immediately repented saying it.


With our appetites satiated by a good tasty dinner we came back to Darling Harbour while walking through the glamorous Star City Casino. At the Harbour thanks to my insistence I had the guys join me for a ride on the Light Metro Rail. This way I got to tick off another item from my list of things to do in Sydney. Not that it was a major achievement but I was all smiles on stepping into the rail's cabin. I had to get a photo clicked of me feeling like a queen.

I made us get off at the Darling Harbour Station instead of the one close to George Street once again shocking the guys at my desire of paying another visit to the place I had been anyway seeing everyday. I guess that even though I had been repeatedly talking about coming to Sydney again, I knew deep inside that I had no idea how sooner or later that would really happen.

Parting ways with my friend in front of the Chinese Garden for going to different destinations made me realize that my dream had finally come to an end. Within a short span on eight days I had come to love the lazy walk-like pace of Sydney and its ever romantic atmosphere. No wonder I was in no mood to go back. Besides there was still so much that I hadn't done like seeing a live performance in the Sydney Opera House, taking a trip to the Blue Mountains and the Jenolan Caves, cruising on the Hawkesbury river, going to the Sydney Olympic Park and exploring Watsons bay on a ferry. But I guess no dream lasts forever.

Time had come to get back to the real world.

Time had come to move on and dream new dreams.

Goodbye Sydney! Catch you later!

Sydney travelogue (3): The dream run continues

It would become a boring account if I were to write one post for each day (like my previous one) that I spent in Sydney. So instead I will just briefly summarize the best parts about the next six days of my trip.

THE WEATHER
The weather played a crucial role to make it all so memorable for me. The sun shone with just the right intensity. The winds blew lightly. Except for one day my nose did not get an opportunity to become red. As a result we didn't have to protect ourselves in layers of clothings and could actually enjoy getting sun tanned at Bondi beach.


THE CONFERENCE
WATOC 2008 was a very well attended conference. To everybody's and specially the Chairman's surprise even on the concluding day the auditorium was packed. There had been over 800 participants coming from more than 45 countries. There were three sessions of some 200 posters each. What I'll remember about the Welcome Reception is the koala bear and the snake that they had brought to enthrall us delegates.



THE FOOD
McDonalds was my breakfast stop. I happily had hot cakes and burgers there. Sometimes I would have fish and chips with tartar sauce from this Sea Food Take Away or a chicken schnitzel at a Grill in the Harbourside mall as a filling brunch. On other times we fought our way through chicken sandwiches and pizzas. We discovered an Indian fast food joint Pakwaan where we would go for dinner for a break from the usual.

THE WALKING-SPREES
I guess the reason I did not add any weight even after eating all the junk food was because of the amount of walking I did. Everything seemed to be a short distance away which would cause Rahul and me to end up walking every time for at least 30 minutes. If not for sightseeing then simply because we had some time to kill we would take a walk, though a slow one, around Darling Harbour. Thanks to the vastness of the Singapore Airport we found ourselves once again walking for an hour there.

THE FERRY RIDES
Though I didn't return to Manly I did on two occasions take a ferry ride from the Circular Quay to Darling Harbour once in the afternoon and once at night. Both times I was left spellbound because during this particular ride the ferry would actually pass under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and one could see the Sydney Opera House behind it!

THE SIGHTSEEING
Amidst the tight conference schedule it was difficult to do much. But Rahul and I found time to see the Opera House from up-close. I had originally planned to walk the whole length of the Royal Botanical Gardens up to the Macquaries Chair. But both of us had lost steam and instead decided to take a breather by sitting it out in the lush green grass.











We had some amazing time in the Sydney Aquarium where we got to see all kinds of fish (what else). There was an area which was a part of the Great Barrier Reef and it was inhabited by hundreds of colourful fish. We walked through a glass tunnel and could see sharks and turtles floating all around us. My favourite was a section where they had the same fish that were in the movie Finding Nemo. They were the real counterparts of the animated characters who played crucial roles in the film! Kids (and me too) would get excited on being able to identify Nemo, Marlin, Dory and Gill.

Another day when the conference got over early we went to Sydney Wildlife World where we got see everything from insects to venomous snakes, from jumping kangaroos and dormant koala bears to 80 kinds of fluttering butterflies. We also spent some time in the Anzac War Memorial at Hyde Park and the nearby St. Mary's Church.










One morning I discovered The Welcome Wall surrounding the National Maritime Museum. The Welcome Wall which symbolizes the Australian diversity and unity and had inscribed on it names of those who have migrated to Australia.

An unplanned detour that I had made on the Thursday evening and never once regretted was to The Chinese Garden. Its every stone, flower, tree, bridge and lake was seeped in beauty. Its supposed to be a garden of friendship and sadly I was there all alone wishing as always for company. :p









A wish of mine that I did fulfill partly was to walk on the Sydney Harbour Bridge a la Aamir Khan and Preity Zinta in the Dil Chahta Hai song Jaane kyon... Why partly because I never walked the whole length of the bridge. Reaching the starting point itself took quite a lot of searching. So by the time I was on it I was drained already. Besides it was very windy and with cars zooming past constantly I was getting tizzy. Still walk I did a fair distance and the view of the Opera House and the Circular Quay that I saw from the top was worth the walk.








THE SOUVENIR SHOPPING
A thing that I loved about the shops in Sydney were the grand displays that would entice me. But I refrained myself and was content with the bit of souvenir shopping that I did. My favourite buys were a bowl-plate-spoon set with cute koalas printed on it for my 8 month old niece, a kangaroo shaped bag and cool shades for myself and a tie with tiny kangaroos design for Daddy. I also bought a travel diary to write about each new journey that I will be taking.

THE DRAGGING EFFECT
I have to specially mention my labmate Rahul here who bore me and my "chalo na". I really pushed him sometimes and he would give in to my enthusiasm. The good guy that he is, he only complained about it on returning. :-)